To understand this easily we need to know about lighy time. We know that these vast distances from the universe are expressed in light years.
Now tell me what is the lighy time? It takes 8 minutes and 19 seconds for light to come from the sun to the earth. Distance from earth to sun in light time is 8.31 minutes light time. This distance is calculated with the speed of light.
Let me say one thing here that the state of the sun that we are seeing from the earth at this moment happened in the sun 8 minutes 19 seconds ago. The sun takes 8 minutes and 19 seconds to reach the earth. Basically we see the past.
Now coming to lighy years, the distance light can travel in one year is called 1 lighy year. 1 lighy year = 9.461×10^12 kilometers. If you calculate/publish distance of this huge universe in ordinary km then you have to take a lot of trouble.
The closest star to our solar system is Proxima Centauri. Its distance from Earth is 4.24 light years. That is, the light of this star takes about 4 years and 3 months to reach the earth. When we see this star from Earth, it is basically 4 years and 3 months ago. As such, we see the past of everything in space.
The image released by the James Wave Space Telescope is 4.6 billion light-years away from Earth. That is, the location of the galaxies we see in this image is essentially 4.6 billion years old.
Let me tell you an interesting hypothesis. Suppose there is a creature from one of the planets in the galaxy shown in the picture with a brain more advanced than ours at this moment. If they look at our earth with a more advanced telescope, they will see dinosaurs roaming the earth at this moment or even earlier.